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Over the past few years, a great deal has been changed concerning literacy development in kindergarten. Recent research studies have demonstrated that literacy development begins in the very early stages of childhood. Because of this, kindergarten teachers have responsibility for promoting children´s literacy and teaching it in an appropriate manner. This book explores kindergarten teachers´ beliefs and practices regarding developmentally appropriate literacy that is related to Arabic Language. A multiple approach including questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations plus post-observation interviews was utilized to gain information from kindergarten teachers. Data analysis indicated that teaching literacy was not implemented in line with developmentally appropriate practice. The results also showed that teachers early literacy understanding and practices were influenced by a number of factors. The book proposes a number of suggestions to help teachers promote kindergarten children´s literacy development based on the perspective of developmentally appropriate practice.

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Fathi Ihmeideh is an assistant professor of early childhood education in the Queen Rania Faculty for Childhood at Hashemite University, Jordan.He earned his Ph.D from the University of Huddersfield, England in 2006. He has contributed to several publications in the area of early literacy development and early childhood technology.

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